OTTAWA — A Glebe man seeking to stop the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park is seeking to go another round with the city in court, after his challenge to the plans was dismissed two weeks ago as an abuse of the judicial process.

John Martin says a scaled-back project he calls the Lansdowne Park Conservancy would be a better deal for taxpayers and should have the chance to compete with the proposal from the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group that the city has already provisionally accepted. A three-judge panel in Toronto rejected the case as improper, considering that the Ontario Court of Appeal is to rule sometime soon on the separate legal challenge of the Friends of Lansdowne, which covers mostly the same issues.

The OSEG proposal includes a major renovation of Frank Clair Stadium for a Canadian Football League team and several new commercial and residential buildings in the northern and western parts of the site at Bank Street and the Rideau Canal. Martin says the CFL team, which OSEG owns, would have to play at any stadium the city provided, so the group of developers and sports businessmen never had a unique proposal that justified the city’s accepting it without a competition.

According to a memo sent to city councillors by the city’s top lawyer Rick O’Connor Wednesday afternoon, the city has received paperwork from Martin saying he wants to appeal the dismissal of his case. The right to appeal isn’t automatic; Martin has to convince the Court of Appeal that his case is worth hearing, and O’Connor writes that there will probably be a hearing on that issue in early summer.

The argument hinges on the idea that the judges should have considered that Martin has a competing idea for what should be done with Lansdowne Park, while the Friends of Lansdowne’s case focuses on the process the city followed in accepting the OSEG offer.

“Legal Services will be opposing the application for leave and will be seeking further costs against Mr. Martin,” O’Connor’s memo says, beyond the $10,000 the last court ordered him to pay the city for its lawyers’ time.

dreevely@ottawacitizen.com

ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa

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Martin to seek appeal of Lansdowne dismissal; city to seek additional costs

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